


Misunderstandings

by bambithepenguin



Category: Arctic Monkeys, Hurts (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Awkwardness, Best Friends, Falling In Love, Librarians, M/M, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-05
Updated: 2015-05-05
Packaged: 2018-03-29 01:38:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3877453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bambithepenguin/pseuds/bambithepenguin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU. The year is approximately 2009. For one reason or another nobody became a musician, but canon friendships exist. Everybody lives in the same town and has different jobs. All the fuss begins when Theo replaces a friend in a library.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Misunderstandings

The small library smelled of old paper and inertness. The orderly rows of bookcases brought a strange yearning for chaos. But the thing that tormented most was the laughless and almost wordless atmosphere inside the building. Theo felt imprisoned in his new working suit, in this unnatural silence and orderliness and, most of all, in his life path that was so messy that eventually he found himself at a library desk, having neither will nor education to take this job.

Actually, this was his friend Roy’s job, and Theo was just filling in while Roy was completing a summer internship in another country. In spite of the internship being devoted to a completely different field, Roy loved this job and did not want to lose it, so he asked Theo to replace him for a month. The duties seemed quite easy, and the whole library image in Theo’s mind had a halo of mystery and charm around it, so he did not hesitate with the answer. Moreover, he would get the salary for the month, and, since he had not found a job after graduation yet and money was becoming an issue, this situation was very opportune.

The romantic image crumbled down within the first three days. None of the bookcases had secret passages behind them, the spirit of wisdom smelled like dust, and the visitors were mostly not young dreamers but mature downers who had been visiting this library since their youth years and had probably left their friendliness and sense of humor in those faraway times. Other librarians were the same kind. It was a very steady job, in the sense that Theo had to sit on the same chair the whole day and do the same tasks, like editing the database and taking books back. There were few regular visitors in the small library, so Theo had lots of free time. Even more than he needed. Theo knew this was not even his profession, but his own one, a physicist with an unpronounceable specialization, would barely be more entertaining. He would prefer to do something more meaningful and dynamic. To make a difference. To see the world. Ideally, to explore space.

Fortunately, Theo had a talent of finding good things in any situation and dragging them to the front of his mind, and that was what he tried to do as soon as realized what a drag this month was going to be. He surrounded himself with books he had wanted to read for ages and picked several new ones. However, the real distraction turned out to be not in the piles of books but just somewhere near them.

Bored and roaming around the library with his eyes, Theo noticed a fragile looking lad sitting in a purple armchair in the corner of the room and reading absorbedly. Theo’s eyes lingered on him for a while with interest. People his age were not a common occurrence in this building. The lad’s dark hair was messy and quite long, and the thoughtful detachment in his face made him look both strangely relevant in this story-filled room and at the same time absolutely alien. Most visitors’ faces, on the contrary, were so stonelike that Theo wondered how they even could be interested in the art of literature. The fluffy lad looked up from his book, and Theo had to avert the interested gaze urgently. After all, he had to insert new books into the database and, unlike reading and staring at handsome people, it was one of his duties.

The lad stayed in his place for a couple more hours, and every so often Theo threw admiring glances at him. Leisurely sprawling in the big armchair, the lad looked like a newly crowned young king. Theo thought that he was the most – and probably the only – ethereal thing in this bleak building that he had assumed would be full of fairytales.

In the evening, the reading fellow closed the book and set off to Theo’s desk with a gloomy expression. Theo fidgeted uncomfortably and tried to look as immersed in the computer as he should be. “ _Shit, I hope he didn’t notice me staring_ ,” he thought, “ _I don’t need extra problems with this job right from the start_.”

Still with a frown, the lad put the book and his library card on Theo’s desk. The newly assigned librarian zoned out at the closer view for a second, and neither said a word.

“I’d like to give a book back, please,” the lad finally reminded Theo of his duties.

“Uh… Yeah, sure!” Theo awakened and took the book and the card, “Sorry, you had that look as though you were going to make a complaint or something.”  

The lad, whose name, according to the card, was Alexander, lowered his eyes.

“No, why… I was just kind of struck by the book’s end, and apparently it showed. Sorry.”

“It’s alright,” Theo smiled.

As soon as he returned the card, Alex was off before Theo came up with anything else to say. He was left alone again, staring at the screen with the records on Alex’s library card. Somehow this complex table seemed much more fascinating to Theo than any of the books around him, and he spent quite a while examining it. Expectedly, he failed to pull a Sherlock; however, some details were clear enough even without particular investigatory skills. Apparently, Alex was a regular visitor but he did not come often enough to seem like a friendless nerd, he had no remarks on spoiling books but had plenty of delays, and his reading history was astoundingly extensive and varied. Theo wrote some titles down, intending to read them as soon as possible, and grinned to himself. It seemed like a beginning of a story that could turn out to be a weighty reason to endure this dismal month.

Alex did not show up the following day but in the morning, Theo had another important visitor, his friend Adam, who was a bartender. The pub was not open yet, and Adam dropped in on his way there to pay a visit. He found Theo in high spirits, sighing over a pile of books in a dreamy manner.

“Hey,” Adam greeted him, dragged a chair to his desk and sat down, “How’s your new job?”

“Adam, I’m in love!” Theo declared happily.

“With this pile of books? Glad for you. Seems like you’ve finally found your place in life.”

“No, with a guy.”

“Shall we celebrate then?” Adam smirked.

“What?”

“The tenth time this month. As far as I can remember, it’s a record,” Adam explained kindly and dodged from the book Theo was trying to use as a weapon. Both were giggling, though. “Okay, who is he?”

“His name is Alex. He comes here often.”

“And again, what a good place for you, if you manage to pick people up here.”

“Well, not really,” Theo admitted, the delight in his voice lowering, “We haven’t even talked yet. Well, aside from the time he wanted to give a book back, and I forgot not only that I was a librarian but also how to speak in general.”

“And was that enough to fall in love?” Adam wondered with a grain of salt, “You basically know nothing about him.”

“Not quite!” Theo objected merrily and waved at the computer as though he was giving a presentation. The same table with Alex’s records was on the screen, and Theo pointed at different spots, explaining as he went, “He has a good book taste and reads a lot. But it’s probably not his only hobby, he doesn’t come that often. Very neat. Kind of dreamy, he dozes off over a book now and then. Also with a pleasant voice.”

“Not to mention very handsome, if I may guess.”

“So sharp-witted of you.”

“Well, good luck,” Adam patted Theo’s shoulder, and all the information he had just got flew into one ear and out from the other. He had got used to Theo’s endless likings and treated them skeptically. There were too many of them and they came and went too quickly to bother remembering any names. This one seemed no different, maybe just a bit new, considering the circumstances. It was no club or party but a library, the kind of person was probably appropriate for the place, and maybe it was just the weirdness of the situation that made Theo so excited.

Fortunately, Theo changed the subject, and that made Adam even more certain that this liking would have a close expiration date.

After a few days of unbearable waiting, Alex finally showed up. He took another book and reclined in the same armchair. Theo felt as though he was going to take an exam, and the amount of books from Alex’s card he had already read, intending to start a conversation with discussing them, made the situation even more exam-like. The tiny figure in the huge cozy armchair somehow looked both appealing and uninviting, and Theo found it hard to catch the moments when and how the sides of a coin changed each other. At least choosing a topic to take off was no problem: they were literally surrounded by topics, and Theo could use any of them. The problem was to make these several steps and start talking. After he would start, nothing would probably make him shut up.

Theo walked around the room in zigzags, as though checking whether everything was in order, and finally he ended up standing near that very armchair where Alex was nestling. Once again, being close to him broke the prepared algorithm in Theo’s mind and sent all his thoughts flying around. He even forgot what book he was going to talk about. Theo had been standing there frozen and staring down at Alex’s locks long enough to seem creepy but Alex kept reading without showing any awareness of anyone around. Flustered, Theo turned away to a bookshelf and made an impression of rearranging books to give himself some time to think. He needed to at least remember any title from Alex’s list to break the silence, but all the books he managed to remember seemed either too romantic and therefore pushy sounding or too common to make a good impression.

Swept away from reality, Theo became unconscious of what his hands were doing, and a book with a slick cover slipped away from the tidy line. Before he had time to catch it, the whole row tilted dangerously, and within the few next seconds a book avalanche came down from the shelves. It reached Alex’s feet with loud ramble, and one of the books flew down so abruptly that it almost hit his leg. A crash so loud was hard to ignore, and Alex finally looked up, staring at Theo with his eyebrows raised. Alex’s face showed such big annoyance that he seemed to be anathematizing Theo without even saying anything, and Theo’s apology froze on the tip of his tongue. Alex stood up, walked to the opposite corner of the room and took another seat, leaving Theo to stand in embarrassment above the hill of books. All the scarce visitors and librarians were staring at him disapprovingly. After a failure so absurd, Theo thought, putting the books back in grief, he would have to give up at least for a while.

***

What Theo did not think for a second, was that the seemingly disgruntled lad shared his broken hopes of getting a better outcome of that day. Gazing at the page closely but grasping no sentences, Alex felt disconcerted and thought about how stupid it was to hope that the new handsome librarian had approached him to talk, when in reality it turned out to be just some mocking trick. The dapper fellow with slicked back hair caught his attention right from the first day of his presence in the library. Alex stared at the new librarian whenever he seemed to be busy with his work but not only did he not dare to start a casual conversation – he even gave books back to other librarians, even though it was not their duty, making use of the fact that he was a regular and well-known visitor. For this particular situation, this fact was very unfortunate, as it only maintained Alex’s shyness and prevented him from finally approaching the attractive newcomer. Days later, it seemed to Alex that the library lad was reading some of the books Alex himself had read not a long time ago, and hope arose: the books could become an innocent topic to take wing. When the fellow came up to him, Alex was one step close to raising his blushing face and blurting out any title that would come to his mind. However, the absurd gush of books lessened his will to talk to him even more. 

The next time Alex came to the library, the slicked back librarian did not approach him and gave him little attention at all: just occasional glances from the desk, as though he was keeping track of visitors’ behavior, according to his duties. If any initiative from his side, even if it would be throwing books around, did not seem likely, the only activity left to Alex was reading. He sighed, snuggling up in his favorite soft armchair, and looked down at another book he had to complete as soon as possible.

Another quiet day in the library was crawling by slowly, but stagnation was slightly perturbed in the afternoon, when Alex’s friend Miles turned up. He worked in a butcher shop nearby, and now was probably his lunchtime.

“So where’s the hot library guy?” Miles wondered merrily, flopping on the armrest.

“Amazingly near, if you intend to keep shouting,” Alex smiled, his cheeks getting rosy.

“Okay, I’ll pipe down. So?”

“There, at the desk.”

Miles stared at the named lad without even being discreet about it. Luckily, the young librarian seemed to be too busy with his computer to notice.

“Nice choice,” Miles approved and gave Alex a shoulder hug, “What’s next?”

“Well, uh… nothing, I guess.”

“Why’s that? Too shy?”

Alex made a vague gesture somewhere in between shrugging and waving away.

“Yeah, maybe. Kind of.”

“What’s there to be afraid of? He won’t, like, collapse a bookcase on you!”

“You’ll be delighted to know he has tried.”

“What?” Miles marveled with a frown, imagining the lean librarian running around the room with a bookcase in his hands and trying to slam Alex, “That’s nonsense! Come on, mate, don’t chicken out!”

Pulling on a stubborn grimace, Alex shook his head so that his curls dangled in a childish manner.

“Come o-o-o-on!” Miles nagged, pushing Alex playfully, “I’ve been here for 5 minutes, and he’s already glanced at you three times!”

“Nah. It’s nothing important, anyway. Just a tiny fleeting liking that should go away and stop distracting me from work. And, if so, he may be looking at you, not at me,” Alex murmured, his hands twiddling the book.

“Well, if you won’t go for it, I will,” Miles threatened in an annoyed voice, but Alex just shrugged.

“Bon voyage, then.”

“In denial, aren’t we? You know how it goes if I step into the game.”

“Okay, spare us both some time and go already.”

Miles did not expect compliance so indifferent but he knew it would not be the final answer. Indeed, he had not even made the second step when Alex grasped the edge of his shirt and pulled him back. Startled by the strength of the grasp, he fell on Alex’s lap and grinned victoriously.

“Not the best way to show your interest in him, you know, pulling me on your lap.”

“Perhaps,” Alex agreed and pushed him back to the armrest, “Your help is priceless.”

“My help would be motivating you to take a step. Otherwise I will and you won’t stop me next time. Your time is limited, my dear friend.”

“You idiot!” Alex smiled and fell into deep thought, while Miles was playing with his hair, “Uh… I just… No, I don’t think I can… Ouch!” – Miles pulled a lock, “Fuck, okay! Let me think!”

Miles lifted both hands and started bending fingers one by one.

“Oh, fuck off!” Alex grumbled, “Okay, I’ve thought of something. He usually checks whether there is any damage in the books so I can just… slip a note… and for insurance write it in code, like, the page number, the letter number and so on… The best part is that, if he’s interested, he’ll take time to decode it, and if he isn’t, he’ll just throw it away. Neat,” Alex concluded, glowing with proudness for his invention.

“Geez,” Miles sighed with a gracious smile, “You couldn’t be any more straightforward, could you? It’s still better than nothing, though. I’ll go now, my lunch break will be over soon and I haven’t eaten a crumble yet. Good luck with your fleeting crush, mate,” Miles patted Alex on the knee and headed to the door.

Alex had a very busy evening that day. First, he had to choose the book that would contain the message, then write that very message and, finally, translate it into the code. The simple actions turned out to take a lot more time than it would seem, and the second stage was the hardest. After a pile of spoilt drafts, Alex decided to be brief and moderate and avoid all the extensive dithyrambs that were coming from his pen as though on their own. He wrote a short suggestion of meeting outside the library in the evening the day after tomorrow, when the working day would end, and the simple number code made even those few sentences seem redundant. Alex got a bit carried away, thinking about various ways how this little stunt could fail: that the librarian would miss the paper, that he would not understand the code or that he, what would be the worst, decline the invitation. Eventually, he drained himself so much that he just fell asleep on the broad sheet of books on his desk.

When he woke up the next day, he almost jumped on his chair of fear that he could have overslept everything, but, fortunately, it was just two in the afternoon, so Alex grabbed the book hastily and ran to the library. He had plenty of time, but something was pushing him forward as though it was the last possible minute to make a move.

“Hello,” Alex exhaled, having reached the desired place, his face reddened by running and bashfulness. The young librarian raised his eyebrows, and his lips were slightly agape. “Brought… a book… back…” Alex breathed out. The deep brown eyes were still staring at him in surprise.

“Alright. There’s no need to run so desperately, today we’ve taken a break from hanging people for minor delays in the returns,” the lad grinned faintly, inserting the information into the computer. Alex chuckled, and suddenly it felt much lighter in his chest.

“Nice to know. Well, eh… I’ll go now, then.”

“Yeah, you’re free until the next delay. We may be not so favorable next time,” the librarian warned with an open-armed smile. Alex replied with the same expression but said nothing else. No words could make their way through his enamored befogged mind so he just nodded and walked away.

***

Theo felt not less inspirited but a bit confused. After the armchair frolics he had seen the day before, he was almost ready to give up dreaming about Alex, but now, when he had just burst in, all heated and smiley, Theo forgot about everything. Just a few words and smiles was what he had got, but that was a lot – and more than enough to bewitch him even stronger than before.

As usual, Theo opened Alex’s book, mostly not to look for scribbles or torn pages but just to see what it was about and keep up with his reading habits. It was a poetry book, and, before Theo found out something else, a sheet of paper slid out and fell on his desk. Theo got a feeling this could be more interesting than the book itself and fell under the tempt of reading the paper. It was a handwritten poem and, judging by the number of replacements and crossed lines, an original one. The choice of words seemed peculiar to Theo, nonetheless witty and beautiful, and the more he read it all over again, the more remarkable it sounded in his head. Of course, Theo assumed it was Alex’s work and felt something of a triumph: whatever would happen, it was so lucky that he had met that lovely weirdo who turned out to be a poet. Theo folded the paper carefully and put it into his breast pocket, secretly hoping that Alex would not notice the loss.

This small paper at Theo’s heart was the only thing that cheered him up when Alex did not show up the next day. However, its lightweight flatness in his pocket started giving him doubts, whether it was decent to keep it. After all, it was Alex’s thing, and it was probably important to him. He could be unaware of where he had lost it and be sad about the loss. Theo thought it would be fair to give the poem back as soon as possible, but, on the other side, since Alex apparently had a boyfriend, and Theo would soon be gone from the library forever, he wanted to keep it as a peculiar souvenir.

Weighing the options, Theo walked out of the library in the evening to go home, but then he saw Alex standing on the corner of the street near the library. Theo lingered on the porch and gazed at him, as he had not been noticed yet. Alex looked like he was waiting for someone and glanced here and there, making Theo lurk behind a column whenever Alex’s head turned in the library’s direction. Theo felt really stupid, hiding like this, but he could neither walk away from the beautiful view of the long-haired figure in the tender evening light nor approach him and talk. Suddenly his mood fell, when he thought about whom Alex was waiting for. Probably that frisky guy who came to him the other day and made it really difficult for Theo to pretend all he cared about was his buzzing computer. The moment Theo remembered about this, he forgot to step back when Alex looked at the library once again, and their eyes met. Theo noticed that Alex looked slightly bewildered, and it was explainable, but Theo had no idea what to say after being caught peering from behind a column in the semidarkness. The best he could do was just leave quickly, trying to pretend some sane reason for this could exist. Theo walked down the few steps, leading away from Alex, but could not resist looking back at him. Seeing a nettled grimace on his face, Theo instantly regretted this decision and walked away as fast as he could. “ _Fuck, I must be annoying him so much with my endless stares_ ,” Theo thought bitterly, “ _What I should do is give him the poem back as soon as I can and stop rubbing salt into the wound_.”

***

As his tall silhouette was moving away, Alex felt like with every step all the hopes were getting crushed down even more violently. He could not find any reasonable explanation except for the theory that the librarian had read the note but found nothing pleasant about it, and this was probably the worst possible outcome. Alex failed to interpret the doubtful look and the hasty escape in any more fortunate way. “ _I definitely have to call it a day_ ,” Alex thought, starting his cheerless way back home, “ _Building all those heaven castles without even knowing his name, setting up the stupid code game… What a clown. Nevermore._ ”

***

The following several days, Alex was not seen in the library or anywhere near at all, and Theo started to worry. Now and then, he opened Alex’s library page on the computer and asked the screen in his mind: “ _So how am I supposed to ignore you when you don’t even show up?_ ”. Without Alex sprawling habitually in his favorite purple armchair, life in the library became not only as dull and gloomy as it had been before him, but even worse. Theo was ready to forsake his promise of retreat, if only Alex would drop in healthy and unharmed or at least if Theo would somehow find out nothing bad had happened.

One fine day Alex showed up at last, healthy but visibly downcast and tired. Theo twitched up, but Alex walked past him without saying hello, took a book and started reading it in his armchair, not even looking up once. Apparently, something bad had happened indeed, but at least it brought no physical injuries. Theo pulled the poem out of his pocket and headed toward him. Even when he was standing close, Alex did not pay any attention to him.

“Excuse me,” Theo started indecisively, and Alex fidgeted slightly but did not look at him. Theo sat on the armrest that was luckily wide enough not to seem rude. “Is it by any chance yours? You gave a book back the other day, and it was there, so I thought…”

Alex lifted his head so abruptly that Theo had a faint suspicion something had gone terribly wrong but could not grasp what exactly. He showed the paper to Alex, and he stared at it with a growing shade of panic.

“Oh shit… Wrong book… I gave back the wrong book…” Alex murmured with horror much stronger than the little accident deserved.

“Hey, don’t worry, we’ll make it up fast,” Theo tried to cheer him, failing to comprehend why it was such a big deal, but Alex went on mumbling in a strangely apologizing manner.

“I mean… I intended to give back “Great Expectations”… yeah, it was there… but accidentally grabbed a poetry book I had taken for myself. Such an inspiring book, honestly, and I was wondering where it vanished… I just tried to write something in the same spirit but, well, failed, I’m sorry you had to face those slobbery scribbles…”

“Absolutely not!” Theo protested, “It’s a marvelous poem! Frankly, I even wanted to keep it.”

“Oh, why would you?”

“I’ll auction it when you’re a famous poet and make a fortune,” Theo smiled, and Alex chuckled, taking the paper away.

“Well, at least for somebody it’ll be useful, then.”

The conversation seemed to have wrapped up but Theo was not going to leave so quickly, when there was finally a chance to speak properly and when his desk did not separate them. Suddenly, Alex went on first.

“Actually, I’m no poet, it’s just, like, a hobby. I’m an English literature teacher. I’m starting in autumn so I have to reread a lot of books not to make a fool out of myself… But I also read for myself, and I like it here. So quiet and solitary.”

“Judging by the number of books on your card, you’ll make a great one,” Theo tried to make a compliment, and only then he thought he could sound as though he had been examining that list carefully, as it really was, “By the way, my name’s Theo, nice to meet you.”

“I’m Alex.”

“I remember, I’ve seen your card,” Theo smiled.

“Ah, yes. I remember you too, you know.”

“Do you?”

“Yeah. Hard to forget a face of a person who sent a profound bookalanche down on you,” Alex smirked amiably, and Theo chuckled back.

“Oh, sorry, it was an accident. I’m new to all this library stuff so I might be a bit clumsy sometimes. It’s not even my job, I’m just replacing my friend until he’s back from an internship.”

“For how long?”

“A month.”

Alex fell into deep thought and for a second seemed as gloomy as he had been when he had walked into the library. The talk halted again. Theo did not dare to ask what was saddening him so much. The less invasive thing he could do was distract Alex from whatever it was by any means.

“Hey, I thought, if you’re studying literature… are you interested in old books? Like, really old, handwritten?”

“Uh… It depends,” Alex shrugged, a bit surprised by the question, “But they could be interesting, yeah. Why are you asking?”

“The thing is, there are some really unique things in the archives. This section is kind of restricted for this reason but, since you have an inside man…” Theo beamed and pointed at himself with both hands, “Only if you’re interested, of course.”

“How can I refuse such an honor?” Alex’s eyes lighted up, and that was what Theo was after most, “Won’t it get you into trouble?”

“Nah, don’t think so. I think we can be shifty enough to escape a couple of old librarians. And anyway, it’s such an inert place, people barely go there. It’s even shameful that all those gems are just lying there in dust, not really needed by anyone.”

“Don’t make me cry over lonely manuscripts, please,” Alex asked with an ironic grin, “Let’s go.”

***

When Adam walked into the library the next morning, he found Theo with a face so blissful that he seemed to lack a cloud to lie on and a bottle of gods’ nectar close at hand.

“Hey, how’s it going?” Theo wondered with a broad smile, noticing Adam taking a seat near him.

“Ah, alright. I woke up early today, and the pub’s not open yet so I’ve decided to drop in for a talk. How are you?”

“Fine! Alex and I got acquainted yesterday.”

“Alex?” Adam wondered with a note of misunderstanding, “That library guy? Is he still a thing?”

“And how!” Theo crooned merrily.

“Good for you,” Adam rejoiced and patted him on the back, but Theo hummed doubtfully.

“Well, not that good, actually. We had a great talk yesterday but he seems rather reserved. And, what’s worse, apparently he has a boyfriend.”

“Uh… Sorry, mate.”

For a while Theo turned to the computer, and Adam had a vague suspicion that he noticed a window with Alex’s page getting minimized.

“You’ll find someone else,” Adam said awkwardly, for he did not know how else he could console Theo and whether he had to console him at all, because actually he looked far from despaired.

“Yeah, but at least until I’m out of this place, Alex is the thing. When Roy comes back, I go away and stop seeing him sitting all pretty in that damn armchair, it’ll fade. I’m okay, you don’t have to cheer me up.”

“How did you find out about the boyfriend, anyway?”

“Ah, a guy dropped in and almost jumped on his crotch. What could it possibly mean, I have no idea,” Theo grumbled sarcastically, and his merry face fell a bit, “Alright, I’m not that okay, actually. After we spent some time together, it got both better and worse, and I was fixed on the good stuff when you came in but…”

“Sorry for bringing the bad vibes back, then,” Adam shrugged, and Theo laughed quietly, “Is he that wonderful to be fixed on so desperately? Will you show him to me?”

“I would, but I’m not sure how. You come in the morning before work, and he rarely comes early.”

“Describe him, at least.”

“Uh, well… Fluffy brown hair, brown eyes, rather short and lean. He looks like an innocent dandelion, on the whole. Just come and see, I wonder what you will say,” Theo persisted.

“I’ll try,” Adam promised, looking away from the hopeful eyes. In fact, he was not sure one of the hundred of Theo’s crushes was worth getting into trouble at work. However, Theo’s joy about his promise was so big that Adam decided to ask somebody at work to cover him for an hour, if he would get a chance.

They spoke a bit more, and Adam went to work. In the afternoon, Theo got sick of being alone and went to wander around the archive to cause brighter memories of when he was there with Alex, which books Alex looked through and how he listened to Theo’s stories with a delighted smile. Full of sweet suffering, Theo headed back to his workplace but froze in the doorway. Alex was already in the room but, to Theo’s great sadness, he was not alone: that cheerful guy was sitting on the armrest again.

***

“Any progress?” Miles asked, nodding at the empty chair near Theo’s desk.

“Uh… shortly, the code thing didn’t work out but yesterday we got acquainted anyway and talked well.”

“Really? Tell me more!”

“His name is Theo, and he’s here only for a month, replacing a friend. He took me to the archive, which is restricted, and we… Fuck off,” Alex grumbled as a sly expression grew on Miles’ face, “It’s nowise an appropriate place! We just talked about literature and stuff, he told me lots of stories about the old books there… It was wonderful.”

“Let me make this clear: he’s here just for a month and you wasted time on some old paper?” Miles clarified and shook his head, “When such a good chance came out of the blue? What’s wrong with you, Al?”

As Alex was looking for the words to explain himself, Theo returned to his workplace with a bleak expression, not giving him a single look.

“Look, what was I supposed to do?” Alex stared at Miles with eyebrows bent, “He suggested the thing and he seemed excited about it, did I have to cut him off?”

“But why can’t you just suggest your own thing?” Miles stood up decisively, “Okay, watch and learn then.”

“What are you… Fuck, stop!” Alex shouted at the retreating back in whisper but Miles already reached the desk. Sure enough, he had no real intention to put the make on Theo. It was necessary just to shake Alex up.

***

As Miles leaned on his desk, Theo moved back unwittingly. He had no idea why the lad had walked up to him, except for the assumption he had found out about Theo and Alex roaming alone in the archive and came to sort things out.

“Hey, so why do people of other jobs work in a library?” the fellow wondered in a surprisingly joyous tone. Theo faltered.

“Uh… I just… My friend asked…”

“I mean, you should be modelling,” he grinned, and Theo scowled at him in surprise, “I’m Miles, pleased to meet you.”

“I’m Theo and I’m actually a physicist,” Theo clarified, expecting Miles to suggest destroying his model features or something like that. However, he did not seem threatening at all. He was just standing at the desk and showering Theo in charming smiles. Absolutely misled, Theo glanced at Alex stealthily: he was watching the scene with eyes and mouth round of horror.

“I’m new here, maybe you’ll show me around?” Miles wondered with the most fascinating expression that he was capable of.

“ _Oh shit, he’s totally hinting at the archive thing_ ,” Theo thought in panic. The best answer he came up with was just handing Miles a map of the library without a word.

“ _Geez, he’s bulletproof_ ,” Miles thought and, captured by the challenge, decided to bring in the heavy artillery.

“Oh, thanks. I wanted to ask earlier but, sadly, you were away,” Miles explained, sitting on the corner of the desk and palming the wooden surface slowly, “How often are you actually on the desk? It would be a delight to see you on the desk… more often.”

Theo hardly contained himself from laughing. Apparently, he was not going to be beaten so he felt much calmer.

“Well, as often as my duties require.”

“Good. Do your duties include any private services?”

“Uh… Not really, I’m more of an intern…”

“Do you have a hard cover section here?” Miles went on after a glance at the map, teased and nettled to the point where he did not control his words anymore, “Because I’d totally seclude ourselves there.”

After a pun so dumb, Theo could not help laughing anymore. Both Miles and Alex were staring at him in perplexity from different distances. Luckily, Theo saw Adam peering from the doorway with his eyebrows raised and stood up, almost choking.

“If you excuse me, I have to see a friend and leave my… desk again…” Theo exhaled heavily on his way out, “Oh my god… hard cover section… good one…”

As soon as they were outside and Theo stopped laughing, Adam noticed calmly:

“I see, I haven’t taken a break at work for nothing. Big progress, isn’t it? I’d just like to say this guy is nothing like an innocent dandelion. More of a dandy lion.”

“Oh, no, it’s not Alex,” Theo chuckled again.

“How long has it been since our talk in the morning? You sure move on quickly.”

“It’s his boyfriend Miles, actually. Weird, isn’t it?”

Adam stared at him agaze.

“Who could’ve thought a library would turn out to be so beneficial.”

“No, listen, it’s really weird,” Theo asked more seriously, “They were sitting there and talking, then Miles came to me, climbed on my desk and started telling me strange things.”

“What kind of strange?”

“Like… flirty stuff… and he kind of hinted he knew about me and Alex. And, by the way, Alex watched all of that, looking really shocked.”

“Whoa,” Adam gaped, leaning on a column. Having thought for a while, he wondered: “Don’t you think it was… something like revenge?”

“As in?..”

“Well, it’s the only clue I can suggest,” Adam shrugged, “Maybe he found out about you and Alex flirting, got jealous and was like: “Hey, if you flirt with other guys, watch me do the same and see how it hurts”. Probably.”

Theo squinted and tilted his head.

“Uh… It makes sense. But, frankly speaking, I didn’t even flirt! Okay, I may have grabbed his hand once but that was only because we reached for the same book!”

“Well…”

“… Okay, twice, because I almost fell down the ladder while taking another book but he was the one who gave me his hand so…”

“Theo, listen…”

“… And I grazed his ass because he was on the ladder and I was telling him a story with too much gesturing but only accidentally…”

“For god’s sake, Theo,” Adam smiled but sounded strict, “You don’t know how he took this and how he described it to Miles.”

“Fair enough… Well, probably I just have to let go. You should’ve seen how pissed Alex looked,” Theo sighed.

“Right,” Adam agreed, looking at his friend’s discouraged face. It was certain that Theo would not bother for long, yet he looked sadder than his numerous crushes usually could make him. Adam hugged him tightly. “Come on, man. You’ll be fine. Just a couple of weeks here, and you won’t even remember him.”  

“Yeah, I know,” Theo said simply.

“And until then, you have to take your mind off him. Distract yourself. Come to my pub, there are so many handsome guys and girls in the evenings.”

“Thanks, maybe I will. But meeting people in a library turned out to be more interesting,” Theo grinned sadly, “More trust and interest right from the start, you know.”

***

Meanwhile behind the wall Miles came back to Alex with a frown of defeat.

“So what exactly was I supposed to learn?” Alex wondered ironically, with his arms crossed.

“I don’t understand that nerd. He brushed off everything I said. I give up, do what you want. Recite Shakespeare, gift him a Renaissance scroll, I don’t know, write him a poem, whatever works for you bookworms,” Miles declared, looking a bit offended.

Alex laughed. For a second he was actually afraid that Theo would fall under his friend’s charm, and Miles’ complete failure infused him with hope.

However, his next visits were as silent and tasteless as never before. Alex contacted with Theo only when he gave books back, and Theo did not come up to him beyond those occasions. He told no more jokes and irrelevant stories, and his answers were brief and purely polite. Perplexed, Alex tried to start a conversation repeatedly, but, even when the situation was almost asking for banter, Theo stayed laconic and businesslike. The reason of this sudden estrangement was unclear, and every day Alex suffered more and more.

Before Theo’s first days of work in the library, he came there twice a week on average, and now he spent whole days there, one after another. The strange detachment made him want to do something drastic but at the same time gave him even more fears about rejection. Alex remembered the code thing and thought that, since the message had not even reached Theo, he could reuse the evasive trick. This time, however, he decided to improve it. Instead of coding a short invitation, Alex wrote a lengthy heartfelt letter about everything, starting from that time, when Alex hoped to be talked to and found himself buried under books, and ending with these days, when Alex would do anything just to spend a day with Theo somewhere beyond the library. Alex found it easier to speak from his heart in writing, and the letter turned out to be so long that he had to write very slimly to fit it into one sheet. He folded the paper carefully and put it into the book he was going to give back. This time, Alex made sure he gave back the right book. As always (or, more precisely, as in the latest days), Theo took it without unnecessary comments, and Alex went home with a heavy heart.

***

For a while Theo just stared at the book, thinking whether he should open it. The whole week he had been trying to avoid all the temptations, but Alex, apparently, had a lot of books to read and sat in the library from morning till night, so it was a difficult task. This book was just another temptation: as soon as Theo would open it, he would want to read it and then inevitably imagine how Alex had turned the pages gently, slowed down on exciting places and smiled to himself on funny ones. After all, Theo thought, Alex never spoiled books anyway so it would not be too irresponsible just to skip it.

“ _Okay_ ,” he decided in his mind, “ _I’ll look through in one breath just in case_ ,” – and Theo leafed the book over hastily, but some paper fell out of it and made him stop. “ _Oh fuck_ ,” he cursed internally, “ _No, no, no. This I shouldn’t even look through. No way_.” Theo squinted to make the text unreadable and looked at the paper. This time it was no poem but something in prose and very lengthy. To cut the temptation down, Theo put the paper into a drawer and sighed deeply.

***

The next day Alex found Theo behaving absolutely the same as before the letter. This abashed him to the core. He expected to get at least some reaction, even if the reaction would turn out to be not so pleasing, but there were no changes at all. Feeling vexed, Alex came up to Theo with a resentful sounding question.

“Uh… I returned a book yesterday. Have you seen… anything else in it?”

“Yeah, shall I give it back to you?” Theo asked willingly.

Struck by the unexpected answer, Alex recoiled. Give it back. It was the nastiest option. Not only did Theo not want to react to the letter itself, but also decided to get rid of it in such a demonstrative way. Pursing his lips, Alex turned away and walked back to his reading spot. The chair creaked loudly as Theo jumped up and ran after him.

“Alex, wait… I’m sorry… Is there something wrong? I didn’t read it, I swear! I just saw the paper, thought it was yours and put it away at once!”

Alex stopped and stared at him with a growing realization.

“Are you okay?” Theo murmured quietly, “Do you want it back?”

“I, uh…” Alex assumed that telling him to read it now and watching this scene would be a bit too much and, moreover, eliminate the advantage of not knowing the answer right away, “Nah… Never mind,” he uttered and headed into the depth of bookshelves to hide disappointment. Looking guilty and worried, Theo followed him again, and Alex pretended to be searching for something in the bookcase he was passing by. His seeming busyness, however, did not drive Theo away. He leaned on the wall and watched Alex browsing the books. Feeling heat in his cheeks again, Alex intensified the search.

“Wow, are you interested in biology?” Theo wondered respectfully after a while.

“Why would… Oh yeah,” Alex mumbled, noticing the “Biology” sign on the bookshelf he was rummaging in, “Not that I understand everything but it can be weirdly relaxing.”

“Great!” Theo smiled, “Maybe I’ll help you find what you’re searching for?”

It occurred to Alex that he had just chased himself into a deadlock. He barely remembered even the school curriculum and certainly had no idea how serious books on biology looked like.

“Erm…” Alex hummed, his thoughts racing, “Oh, that blue book up there!” he cried out and pointed at the first book that grabbed his attention. Judging by its appealing color and moderate number of pages, it could be something easy enough for Alex to improvise the answers, if Theo would not fall silent. “Yeah, it looks like what I’ve been looking for.”

“Let me help you,” Theo suggested, putting his hands on Alex’s waist and moving him away gently. He stood on his tiptoes to reach the book. “Just one sec, it’s squeezed by other books so tightly.”

“I’m in no hurry,” Alex mumbled, goggling at the stretched body and biting his lips.

“Ah, here it is!” Theo came down with a smile that turned into a surprised expression when he read the title aloud, “It’s, uh… “Human Biology: Sexuality”?”

The silence between the wooden bookcases became even more tangible. Alex cursed himself repeatedly for choosing this bookshelf and this book in particular.

“It’s alright!” Theo reassured but a faint smile wandering around his lips was hard to ignore, “The more you know, as they say…”

“Do I really look like I need to read books on that?”

“Well, frankly speaking, books aren’t always the best information source so…”

“Back to the subject,” Alex interrupted him ineptly, “You took a wrong book. I meant the light blue one,” he required, praying that the whole shelf was not dedicated to this branch of biology.

“Okay, no problem…” Theo shrugged, smiling as though he had not believed the excuse for a second, and reached up again, “Just a moment… “Molecular Cell Biology”?” Theo asked confusedly.

“Yeah. Very relaxing reading, as I said.”

“Really? I should try it, then!”

“Good luck,” Alex grinned, took the book and went away to plunge in molecular biology, at least until Theo would look away and he would manage to change the book. It was unbelievable: he had started out with a love letter and ended up with a book on biology he did not even need. According to Alex’s calculations, Theo’s leave was coming scarily closer, and he had just a few days left to pull himself together and finally be direct and honest.

***

Betraying his own promises to himself due to closeness of parting, Theo thought the same. Just in two days Roy would come back, and the whole battle would be automatically lost. Of course, Theo could come back as a common visitor, but that would seem a bit obsessive, and, moreover, the librarian – reader paradigm had a whole lot more advantages. Above all, as a librarian, he had plenty of innocent reasons to talk – which he mostly missed out, but still.

Another sunny morning, Theo was walking to the library for the last time, as he thought. That day everything would resolve and, whatever the outcome would be, he would at least throw this burden off. Maybe it was this pendency that prevented him from letting go, and Theo felt excited to sweep it away at last. He cheered himself that, after all, there were enough nice moments to assume everything could work out.

However, when he stepped into the library, his face fell. Roy was sitting at the desk, fresh and stirring. No, it could not be, it was some mistake, Roy was not supposed to come back that day, Theo thought in horror, and Roy noticed him.

“Hey, Theo, mate, nice to see you!” Roy exclaimed, walking up to him with a greeting hug, “What’s up? Thank you so much for keeping this place for me!”

“ _It’s not that there are queues of applicants_ ,” Theo thought acidly, angry at Roy for coming back earlier, “You’re welcome. How was the internship?”

“Oh, great! So many new impressions and people! Did you like working in the library, by the way?”

“Well, I could answer the same,” Theo smiled tensely.

“Cool! Look, maybe we’ll meet after work one of these days and tell each other everything? Does Adam still work in that pub?”

“Yeah, he does.”

“I’ll give him a call. And now, if you excuse me, I have to work…” Roy sat back with an expression so serious, as though there were actually a lot of important things to do in this library.

“Alright, I’ll go too. But Roy, weren’t you going to come back the day after tomorrow?”

“I was. I came back today at night. Initially, I left one spare day because the flight could be delayed, and another to have a rest. But I feel fine and not tired at all so I decided to set you free earlier,” Roy explained kindly.

“Ah… How nice of you,” Theo thanked him, clenching fists behind his back, “See you, mate.”

Disappointed, Theo trod away. “ _For fuck’s sake, Roy_ ,” he thought with annoyance, “ _Why couldn’t you just keep away from your precious books and have fun in some other way for two more days?_ ”. Nonetheless, there was still hope. Theo checked the time: Alex would probably come not earlier than in 3 hours, so Theo could just come back then and sort everything out. Cheerful again, Theo went home to think his further actions through more thoroughly.  

***

Full of decisiveness and rosy hopes, Alex stepped into the library and froze. Another fellow was sitting at the desk. Nothing at all was hinting that Theo was once there, and even the same papers on the desk were located so differently as though they were completely new. Suddenly the quietness and the orderly peace of this place, that always seemed an advantage, were a heavy vise. Alex was left internally screaming the words on the tip of his tongue into the empty space and did not even get an echo in reply.

“He didn’t even say goodbye,” Alex was whining in an hour to Miles, who used the first chance to run off from work when he got a text with the devastating news. They were sitting on a bench in a park in front of the library, and Miles was trying to console his broken friend. “It’s the worst. As though the whole thing didn’t even matter enough to get a proper ending,” Alex went on in a quiet voice.

“I’m sorry, Al. It sucks.”

“Maybe you were right. I should’ve made a move earlier. At least to be snubbed in good time and stop daydreaming with no reason,” Alex added sourly, and Miles sighed.

“Why snubbed? You don’t know, maybe he wanted to make a move too but…”

“But what?”

“Well… circumstances… this and that… Who knows?” Miles tried to reassure him but he felt like he did not sound even a little bit convincing.

“Why couldn’t he just say he would be gone today? Takes five seconds at most.”

“Look, perk up, it’s such a small town, maybe we can even find him. I bet we have some friends in common so…”

“Really?” Alex frowned, his nose twitching up, “When a person leaves on their own will with no goodbye, you don’t go searching. Just admit it’s over. I’m not looking for obscure excuses.”

The leaves above them were rustling in the sunlight soothingly, and it seemed impossible that something could be over on such a pleasant day.

“Okay, it’s over,” Miles agreed after a while of silence, “It’s a lousy thing. But I’m here for you,” he promised, pulling Alex into a hug. When they parted, Miles left one hand on Alex’s shoulder, and Alex snuggled to him like a helpless child. Miles glanced at his phone to check the time. With every minute of his absence from work the coming problems could multiply but he chose to sit there with Alex, at least until he would feel better and say something.

***

Glowing with excitement, Theo was approaching the library through the very same park, and the scene caught his eye from afar. He could not fail to recognize this shaggy head, when its owner was the only thing that filled his mind. Seeing Alex in a peaceful embrace with another destroyed all Theo’s willingness to try to explain anything. If now, when Theo disappeared so unexpectedly even for himself, Alex was just enjoying the fresh air with his loved one, in all likelihood it meant that Theo did not matter enough to worry about. “ _Or maybe even be noticed_ ,” Theo sniveled in his mind, assuming that at this time of day Alex had probably already been in the library. It meant that Theo’s unsaid goodbye was not even necessary.

***

The embrace on the bench went on, unaware of Theo’s brief appearance in the distance. Miles was glancing at the time more and more often, and Alex did not even move at all.

“Hey, Sleeping Beauty,” Miles pushed him slightly.

“I’m not sleeping!” Alex blurted and jerked abruptly enough to show he was.

“Sorry, Al, I’d sit here with you all day long but work…”

“Yeah, I know. Sorry for calling you in the middle of your workday and thank you for coming in spite of that. Now go, I don’t want you to lose your job.”

“Sure? Are you alright?”

“I am,” Alex nodded, his eyes sleepy and foggy, “I’ll just sit here for a while… get myself together… And then I’ll have to go to the library because I still have a shitload of serious books to read and reread. But you know… fuck it, today I’ll be after a junky soggy romance,” he smiled sadly, and Miles smiled at him too.

“I know you’ll get through. Call me in the evening,” Miles asked.

“Sure,” Alex promised, and he was left alone with nothing left to do but stare at the occasional couples passing through the park and the vexing library building in the distance.

***

For the disheartened former librarian, meeting Adam within 10 steps from his house was the third most unexpected thing that happened that day. Adam looked slightly agitated and he had a packet in his hand.

“Oh, Adam! Thank god you’re here!” Theo cried out, collapsing into Adam’s surprised hug, without even questioning why Adam was there, “Roy is such a dick! He came back earlier, and I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to…”

“Theo, wait, I’ve got something important to say…”

“…cuddling there with his fucking boyfriend, while I…” Theo did not stop for a second and kept babbling resentfully.

“Give me a moment! I’m having a day off, and I went to the library to visit you but I saw Roy…”

“Fucking son of a bitch!” Theo stopped both Adam and himself to comment but then went on, “… and all of that didn’t even matter to him enough to…”

“Roy said it was fortunate that I came by,” Adam tried to shout him down stubbornly, “Because you left some things there, mostly notes, so I…” Adam shook the packet in his hand.

“Adam, for fuck’s sake, I’m standing heartbroken right here, and you’re dangling some waste paper in front of me!” Theo exclaimed angrily but Adam stayed surprisingly calm.

“At least one waste paper would be interesting for your heartbroken soul, though,” he grinned, “I’m sorry, I didn’t even read it whole, but your name written in an unfamiliar handwriting caught my eye so I dared to look it through…”

“Oh, fuck, that one,” Theo scowled at the paper that Adam pulled out, “Alex left it in a book, I resisted reading and wanted to give it back but it got forgotten somehow.”

“And I thought he slipped it into your drawer before you left or something like this so you didn’t know,” Adam smiled even broader, “Come on, read it.”

“Hell no. Can’t you see it’s already bad enough, I don’t want to make it worse.”

“It concerns you directly and, if anything, it will only make it better.”

Adam was looking at Theo so decisively as though he would read the paper aloud if Theo would not pipe down and take it. At last, Theo swallowed nervously and gave up, letting the neat lines decide how the rest of the day would go.

***

About half an hour passed since Miles had gone away, and Alex still could not make himself stand up and go to the library. At the moment, he felt so much enmity for the place that he was even trying to remember where other libraries were and considering switching to them. Alex knew it was ridiculous being so shattered after just a month of useless sporadic talks, but could not do anything about his wish of never coming back to that building again. However, he remembered that he had some books to return so he would have to drop in at least once anyway. Nobody was rushing him with the comeback, though. Theo’s presence had sped up his reading schedule tremendously so Alex could allow himself a break. Today he could just go home and sleep, and the borrowed books would wait for a better day. Slowly and as though unwillingly, Alex stood up from the bench. He gave the library across the road a pained glower and walked in the opposite direction.

Like a bolt from the blue, he saw Theo running toward him. As he came closer, the shining smile on his face got more and more distinct, and Alex noticed a familiar paper in his hand. Theo slowed down clumsily when just a step was separating them.

“Alex…” Theo breathed out heavily, waving the letter, “I’ve read…”

The corners of Alex’s mouth twitched up. Theo knew and Theo was standing in front of him – it was the most important thing, and all the seemingly necessary explanations did not matter that much. It flashed through Alex’s mind that Theo would not have run like this with the letter in his hand if he had not been…

“So, uh…” Alex interrupted his own thoughts gingerly, “How did you find it?”

“Oh, marvelous! The best thing I’ve read in a month,” Theo beamed.

Alex looked down with a timid smile. Some seconds of mild chuckles had to pass by before Alex looked up slyly and wondered, as though not believing:

“Was it? I require a decent detailed review, then.”

“I’m awfully sorry but giving reviews is out of my competence,” Theo shook his head with a sad pout, “I think I can allow myself a brief remark, though,” he added quickly, swept a curl away from Alex’s face and kissed him. Getting confidence rapidly, Alex pulled Theo closer. After the month-long riddle, the remark had to be much more profound. And it was not that Theo actually meant something else.

“I’m so happy you’re here… It was such an accident…” Theo murmured, giving Alex small kisses all over his face in breaks between the sentences, which made him look like a happy puppy whose owner finally came home, “That friend came earlier than he promised… I thought you didn’t even care… Then this letter came up… Look, is it alright that we’re kissing in the middle of a park?”

“Luckily, I look like a girl, so please go on,” Alex chuckled, and Theo did willingly.

When the lips parted, they opened their eyes and looked at each other as though at a loss. All the previous misunderstandings came to their minds and made them feel like there was something wrong and unfounded about the sudden happy end, even though the luminous summer day made it seem so relevant and inevitable. It was hard to believe that everything fell into place in the twinkling of an eye without even having a preparatory stage. Questions were showing in Alex’s dark dilated pupils and on his open lips. Feeling the awkwardness, Theo took Alex by his hand, and led him along the tree alley. 

“Judging by your letter, I have a terrible lot of explaining to do,” Theo broke the trembling silence, “First of all, as I said, I really didn’t want to drop a bookcase on you, it was just… me trying to start a conversation…”

“Thank you, I’ll take note for the future.”

“And that time I was peeping from behind a column in the evening… So awkward.”

“Actually, I think, here I have to explain something too,” Alex let out a giggle, remembering the ridiculous situation, “I wanted to talk to you but I didn’t know how so I put a coded message into a book and…”

“Wow, amazing, I love codes! Why did I never see it, though?”

“Because I gave you the wrong book!” Alex laughed, “Remember that poem? That’s what you got instead by chance.”

“Still good,” Theo hugged him cheerily, “And what was the message?”

“An invitation to meet near the library in the evening. I thought you whipped away as a sign of declining it in a very rude form.”

“Frankly, I whipped away because I thought you were waiting for your…” Theo stuttered, as this topic was not clear yet, “For your… Miles…”

Alex even slowed down a bit and shook his head with an amused smile.

“Shit, I told him jumping on my lap in front of you was too much! No, we’re not dating, if that’s what you thought. On the contrary, he tried to bring us together but… kind of weirdly, I guess…”

“By sprawling on my desk and telling how he would take me to a hard cover section?” Theo burst out laughing, “Bring us together as in… the three of us?”

“God, no,” Alex laughed too, “He just wanted to get me moving, as far as I understood. Or not. With Miles, you never know.”

They smiled at each other and went further in serene silence. All the miscomprehensions seemed to be resolved, and even the ones they left out were more or less explainable after that. Now they could just enjoy the lovely day and stroll around, holding hands as though afraid to let go once again and giving each other gentle kisses so often as though the opportunity could be taken away any time.

“And yeah,” Alex suddenly spoke again, “That one time at the biology bookcase… It was such a folly. Actually, I don’t know a fuck about biology and don’t like it. Well, probably except for the contents of that first book…”

Theo turned to him and kissed the little foxy smile, and they went further through the park.

“I knew it! Speaking of that… I don’t know a fuck about working with books and, frankly, don’t like it much,” Theo admitted genially and hugged Alex on his waist, “Well, probably except for this book lover.”


End file.
